The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. — D.H. Lawrence

The Britain at War Experience Museum in Southeast London has hanging over its entrance a 1948 photograph of Winston Churchill opening a new Headquarters for the 615th County of Surrey Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force of which he was commodore. The photograph has been airbrushed to eliminate the cigar Churchill was smoking in the original.

The museum’s management declined to identify the designer of its frontal display and disclaimed any knowledge of what had happened to the cigar.